Takuma Sato topped the timing sheets again in the No. 11 Deloitte Honda today, as the Chip Ganassi Racing team continued their preparations for Qualifying this weekend.

Sato posted the fastest average speed (234.753 mph) across a single lap, which was the fastest lap in a practice session since 1996. NBC reported that Sato and teammate Marcus Ericsson registered the first and second-best four-lap averages respectively. 

CGR will roll off 6th (Ericsson), 9th (Dixon), 25th (Sato) and 28th (Palou) for the first day of Qualifying on Saturday. Qualifying will take place from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. ET tomorrow with NBC coverage spanning from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. ET.

Takuma Sato
No. 11 Deloitte Honda
“It’s nice to be this quick, this fast, and working with my team and teammates. We’ve done fantastic preparation and I believe had the fastest practice lap in 26 years. That is entirely impressive with the current package. Our group and HPD is working extremely hard. This was my first time with the boost with Chip Ganassi Racing and my eyeballs went big on that lap in the morning. We’re all working together to find the limit and find consistency with how we drive the tire with the degradation. I love working through the process and thank you to Chip Ganassi Racing for the fantastic opportunity. This is still only a test day, but it’s nice to see the car working so well.”

Marcus Ericsson
No. 8 Huski Ice Spritz Honda
“Pretty happy with today, although I just struggled to get those four laps. The team did a great job to make some changes. We had to analyze a bit of data and video. We then came out here at the end and got a really solid run in. Still a bit of drop-off but we were right up there again.”

Scott Dixon
No. 9 PNC Bank Honda“It was a bit mixed today, to be honest. A couple of unknowns, but we’ll keep working at it for tomorrow.”

Alex Palou
No. 10 American Legion Honda
“The car has felt very good since the beginning of the day with the boost. It’s one of the best feelings that we have in INDYCAR and that’s when the boost is so high. It seems that we have close to the speed that we had last year, so hoping for the same tomorrow for qualifying. It’s going to be tight to get into the Fast 12 for sure, but hopefully we can get all four cars through there.”